Utricularia striatula near Taipei

A few pictures from a valley near the village of Wulai, about 25km south of Taipei. A nice spot for hiking, with the bonus of a few clumps of U. striatula on wet rocks along the way. Not really the peak of the flowering season, but I managed to grab a few fuzzy shots anyway. I really need a better camera though ... the focusing took me ages.

Are you sure it is striatula? No doubt it is a species of section Phyllaria, but esp. the compact growth and corolla shape made me feel it may be something else.

Do you have some more detailled flower shots?

I'm afraid I was hard-pressed to salvage any decent shots from what turned out to be a collection of mostly fuzzy blobs. As far as I know, U. striatula is the only utric growing at this location ... the confusing corolla may be due to the camera angle, and perhaps the flowers being a bit past their best. I'll go back and see if I can find any pics that provide more detail.

As far as I know, again, the list of utrics occurring in Taiwan is ... aurea, australis, bifida, caerulea, gibba, minor, striatula and uliginosa (though I've also seen naturalised graminifolia).

Do you remember where exactly in Wulai you found the striatula? I went there yesterday and couldn't find any on the way to the waterfall even though I looked very carefully at the rocks on the side of the road. I've never seen carnivorous plants in the wild before so I would really appreciate any tips on how to find this plant.

Hi there. You have to head beyond Wulai #2, where the falls are, and keep going on the road towards the Neidong Forest Reserve, a.k.a. Wawagu. It's been a while since I was there but I think the patch of wet rock with the Utrics is a few hundred metres along this road, near a bend.

There's also D. spatulata in Yangmingshan if your interest extends to sundews, but beyond this it's tough to find much in the way of wild CPs in northern Taiwan, at least for me.

I visited Wulai again today and found the site. Thank you so much Numpty! I wouldn't even have known that striatula is in Wulai without your thread. I will post pictures later but I just wanted to say thanks for helping me see my first wild CPs.

This reminds me that I have to get back to Wulai, and Neidong, again. It's a beautiful spot. The last few times I've been in that general area I've headed off in a different direction to look for tree frogs and snakes.

Well, here are some pictures I took of the plants. My first experience seeing carnivorous plants was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for more, especially since Utricularia is my favorite genus. Please excuse the quality of the shots - I only have the camera on my phone.

It was interesting how some of the plants grew on bare rock, some on moss, and some on small chunks of dirt that were wedged between the rocks. I wonder if the growing medium affects the individual plants in some way.

This group of plants growing higher up was probably more shaded. There seemed to be a lot more mud up there too.

This is a shot of the general habitat, although you probably can't see any plants in the picture. The whole place not only had water continuously flowing over the rocks but also had water being sprayed down continuously. It felt like it was raining and I was kind of worried about my phone getting wet.

It was past flowering season but I managed to get a blurry picture of one of the plants in flower. Almost all of the "big" plants (with stolons ~0.7 cm or greater) were either making flowering stalks or had spent flower stalks, but those plants were kind of rare. Most of the time they grew in more protected places like wedges in the rocks.

From this picture you can get an idea of just how many plants there are growing in the place. The site is pretty isolated since it is past the area where most of the tourists go and you need to walk a bit to get to it, so hopefully the habitat stays the way it is for a long time to come.

Well, here are some pictures I took of the plants. My first experience seeing carnivorous plants was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for more, especially since Utricularia is my favorite genus. Please excuse the quality of the shots - I only have the camera on my phone.

I'm glad your first CP experience was such a happy one! And the photos are fine.

It was interesting how some of the plants grew on bare rock, some on moss, and some on small chunks of dirt that were wedged between the rocks. I wonder if the growing medium affects the individual plants in some way.

Sounds like an interesting topic for you to pursue!

From this picture you can get an idea of just how many plants there are growing in the place. The site is pretty isolated since it is past the area where most of the tourists go and you need to walk a bit to get to it, so hopefully the habitat stays the way it is for a long time to come.

I guess the biggest threat would probably be either typhoon damage or road works (most likely linked to typhoons). I've seen whole hillsides washed away due to typhoons.

Funny you should say road works, when I looked at the place on Google Maps there was a road crew working on the side of the road right before this place.

Also, I wanted to point out that the plant on the second picture is not growing on rock but rather is growing on a log that was on the ground, so maybe this there is some hope that Utricularia striatula can colonize new environments. It was still pretty wet there though.